Improving Weight Management Services for Female Veterans: Design and Participation Factors for a Women Only Program, and Comparisons with Gender Neutral Services

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Published Apr 2, 2015

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Main Article Content

Lindsey Bloor
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System University of Michigan, School of Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: With the sustained growth of women using Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare, health promotion and disease prevention programs need to address women’s unique bio-psychosocial concerns, encourage their engagement, and optimize program outcomes. This paper describes the development and evaluation of Women’s MOVE!, a gender-modified weight management program at one VA medical center. Factors associated with female Veteran participation in the program are reported, as well as comparisons of participation rates and weight change between these women and women participating in the regular, gender-neutral MOVE! program.

 

Methods: The MOVE! class content was gender-modified and fifteen female Veterans participated in an 8-session program. Within this group, Student’s t-tests were used to compare women who completed four or more sessions to those who participated less.  The overall rate of participation of this group was compared to those of 14 women participating in the regular MOVE! program, as well as changes in weight.

 

Results:  Among Women’s MOVE! participants, seven (47%) engaged in four or more sessions, while 8 (53%) participated less. Women who participated more fully had higher scores on the Weight Management Ability Scale (p = .00) and the SF-36 mental health subscale (marginally significant, p =.07) at baseline, compared to those who participated less. Between groups comparisons revealed a higher rate of participation among women enrolled in regular MOVE! (p=.007) compared to those in the Women’s MOVE!, and no difference in weight change.

 

Conclusions:  Results revealed variable participation in a women-only weight management program, and lower participation rates compared to that of regular programming. Future research can formally assess factors that support as well as those that hinder female Veteran participation in weight management and other health promotion, disease prevention programs, in order to inform more optimal program development and engagement efforts.

 

Key Words:  Veteran, women, overweight, obesity, prevention, health promotion

Article Details

How to Cite
BLOOR, Lindsey. Improving Weight Management Services for Female Veterans: Design and Participation Factors for a Women Only Program, and Comparisons with Gender Neutral Services. Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], n. 2, apr. 2015. ISSN 2375-1924. Available at: <https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/63>. Date accessed: 22 dec. 2024.
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Keywords
Veteran, women, overweight, obesity, prevention, health promotion
Issue
No 2 (2015)
Section
Research Articles

The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.

 

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